Just saw it! I have to say it’s one of the best animated films I’ve seen in a long time. Not one element of the production distracted me. It had solid animation, great acting and writing, beautiful camera work, and the water and other environments were amazing. There were many times when I forgot I was watching an animated film. A dozen or more animators from Blue Sky saw it over lunch and we all walked out floored. Great job to all who worked on this beauty.

At the risk of embarrassing myself I thought I’d share a funny prank my work mates pulled on me yesterday, for my birthday. First thing in the morning they sent out the following email to the whole Blue Sky Animation department:

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In honor of Scott Carroll’s birthday, we’ve decided to combine selected songs from his ipod (these are seriously from his ipod….we went through it early this morning) into a beautiful tapestry of love-relations on one commemorative cd.

These precious gems, plus hundreds more (we didn’t have time to write them all because he walking to his desk) are available on this “once-in-a-lifetime” 10 disc collection.
Ten Thousand Maniacs: “These Are The Days”Abba: “Fernando”The Bacon Brothers: “Tuesday”Bonnie Raitt: “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind”Dido: “My Lover’s Gone”Dixie Chicks: “Cowboy Take Me Away”Fantasia: “I Believe”Fleetwood Mac: “Songbird”Liz Phair: “Sweet”Melissa Etheridge: “I’m The Only One”Natalie Imbruglia: “Torn”Nora Jones: “Nightingale”Sarah McLachlan: “Angel”Sheryl Crow: “The First Cut Is The Deepest”Sinead O’Connor: “Someone To Watch Over Me”Tori Amos: “Icicle”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOTT!!!
– Love,
Your fellow “Lost Boys”

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I work with some great people who make me laugh all day…. even if it’s at my expense. I love it. I’ll explain the “Lost Boys” bit in a follow on post.

One of the sucky things about this business is from time to time you have to watch some of your team move on to other things. Last week we said goodbye to two awesome animators, Moonsung Lee and Royce Wesley. They are heading to the next phase in their careers and I wish them luck. However, sad occasions like this do give us a reason to take pictures of the animation crew here at Blue Sky currently working on Horton Hears a Who. So here’s a pic of all 40+ of us.